Well, as luck would have it yesterdays Bonaparte’s Gull that was found on the Brownsea Lagoon mid-afternoon re-appeared mid-morning today and thankfully stayed around all day for plenty of birders to enjoy. Nestled in amongst the Black-headed Gulls it gave a good comparison and ID opportunity to get to grips with this Poole Harbour first. Then, in late afternoon we received a call that an orange ringtail harrier was spotted over Lytchett Fields. Thankfully it was seen again a couple of times by another birder later in the afternoon who managed to get a clear set of features indicating it was a juvenile Montagu’s Harrier, a real mid-summer treat! At Arne 5 Spoonbill were feeding in the Middlebere Channel mid-morning and 2 Osprey were in the dead tress at the back of the Middlebere marsh. All day there was a good passage of Sand Martin with many hundreds heading south with House Martin and Swallow mixed in, all pulsing along the southern shores of the harbour and heading along the channels of the Wytch and Middlebere channels. At Greenland’s Farm, Studland the first Yellow Wagtails of the autumn were passing over-head with c10 over the course of the day. Waders from around the harbour included good numbers of Whimbrel in all the bays around the harbour with their familiar calls echoing out across the salt marsh. At Lytchett Fields there were 36 Dunlin, 8 Greenshank, 9 Green Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper and 1 Yellow-legged Gull. At Lytchett Heath a juvenile Nightjar was ringed which was good as it proved breeding at this site this year (unsuccessful last year) and a decent count of 610 Jackdaw went into roost near by.

We also have a week’s worth of work beginning at Holton Pools, which will see the scrapes and pools expanded to create a larger open area for waders. This project began back in March this year and this next phase will hopefully make it more attractive to waders, ducks, gulls, Kingfishers, herons, passerines etc.